How Penang’s Yeap Chor Ee went from penniless barber to one of Asia’s richest men

Yeap Chor Ee. Photo courtesy of House of Yeap Chor Ee - SCMP

WHEN Yeap Chor Ee left his hometown in southern China in 1885 to seek his fortune in Southeast Asia – then known as Nanyang, or the southern seas – he was just one of 125,000 people fleeing a land struck by famine and rebellion.

By the time of his death in May 1952, Yeap had become one of the most prominent men in pre-independence Malaya and the richest man in the northern state of Penang, his name synonymous with philanthropy and real estate.

The King’s Chinese, written by Yeap’s great-granddaughter Daryl Yeap, 49, traces the tale of Penang’s “Grand Old Man”, from his start as a penniless, illiterate barber to one of the most successful tycoons in Asia, against the backdrop of migration and the birth of a nation. - South China Morning Post

Click here for full article: The King’s Chinese: how Penang’s ‘Grand Old Man’ Yeap Chor Ee went from penniless barber to one of Asia’s richest men